Kinyongia magomberae has a single blade-like horn in males. Photograph by Andrew Marshall, University of York/Flamingo Land

As if to prove that you never know what mother nature may throw up next, in 2005 a twig snake disgorged a lizard it was feeding on when disturbed by a scientist in Tanzania. That specimen proved to be only the third known individual of a new species of chameleon and eventually became the "type specimen" to which the new name Kinyogia magomberae is attached. This species is the latest in a group of three related African chameleons that have a single, blade-like horn in males and either a short or no horn and a tail at least as long as the body. Both anatomical and genetic markers support the species status and relationship of the lizard. Ten of the 15 species of the genus occur on isolated massifs within the Eastern Arc mountains and appear to be the result of forest fragmentation since the Pliocene epoch.

Quentin Wheeler is director of the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University